1、S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Background,Transfer of learning is the effect that prior learning has on later learning.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,It is the fundamental goal of education: to make the skills and information students acquire in the classroom helpful to
2、 them outside the classroom.,In 1700, the British empiricist philosopher, John Locke, proposed a theory of transfer called The Doctrine of Formal Discipline. It was challenged two centuries later by American psychologist, Edward L. Thorndike, with his Theory of Identical Elements. Thorndike founded
3、educational psychology.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Doctrine of Formal Discipline,Locke maintained that transfer depends on the amount of effort you put into mastering a task, not the specific skills or information you acquire. The mind is like a muscle. You have to exercis
4、e it to make it stronger.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Here is the theory in Lockes own words, with a few alterations to update the phrasing:,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Doctrine of Formal Discipline,“Would you have a man reason well, you must give him practice ahea
5、d of time, exercising his mind in observing the connection of ideas and following them in train.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,“Nothing does this better than mathematics, which therefore I think should be taught to all those who have the time and opportunity, not so much to make them mathematicians
6、 as to make them reasonable creatures.,.that having got the way of reasoning, which that study necessarily brings the mind to, they might be able to transfer it to other parts of knowledge as they shall have occasion.”,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Theory of Identical Element
7、s,Thorndike maintained that transfer takes place to the extent that the original task is similar to the transfer task.,Transfer of Learning,Locke,It depends on how how many “elements” the two tasks have in common.,For example, taking a high school course in geometry may help you later in life if you
8、 become a surveyor or navigator, but it wont help you if you become a lawyer. You wont strengthen a general ability to think logically by taking geometry.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Thorndikes Theory of Learning,Thorndikes transfer theory was based on his general theory of
9、 learning that said learning consists of forming connections between specific stimuli and specific actions (S-R learning).,Transfer of Learning,Locke,He did pioneering experiments on animal learning in which he studied how cats learned to escape from a small box (a “problem box”) by stepping on a pe
10、dal or pulling on a piece of string. It was the forerunner of the Skinner box.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Thorndikes Theory of Learning,Transfer of Learning,Locke,The cats learned gradually apparently through blind trial-and-error. Responses that opened the door were repea
11、ted; responses that didnt open the door eventually stopped occurring.,Thorndike formulated the original version of the Law of Effect: Responses that lead to positive outcomes are “stamped in”. Responses that lead to negative outcomes are “stamped out”.,The result of this process is an S-R bond.,S -
12、R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Studying Transfer,There are two kinds of transfer, positive and negative. In positive transfer, learning on the original task speeds up learning on the transfer task. In negative transfer, the effect is the opposite: Learning on the transfer task is
13、slowed down.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,In a typical experiment, there is an Experimental Group that gets both tasks, and a Control Group that gets only the transfer task. The researcher compares the two groups rates of learning on the transfer task. Faster learning by the Experimental Gro
14、up indicates positive transfer; slower learning indicates negative transfer.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Studying Transfer,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Experimental Design,Experimental Group,Control Group,Learn Original Task,Rest,Learn TransferTask,Learn TransferTas
15、k,Phase 1 Phase 2,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Studying Transfer,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Experimental Group,Control Group,Learn Original Task,Rest,Learn TransferTask,Learn TransferTask,Phase 1 Phase 2,Suppose the groups took the following numbers of trials to le
16、arn the tasks:,15,8,5,The Experimental Group showed _ transfer.,negative,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Studying Transfer,Its negative transfer because the Experimental Group took longer to learn the transfer task than the Control Group. The number of trials to learn the origi
17、nal task is irrelevant. Ignore it, even though the Experimental Group shows a decrease on the transfer task. Maybe Task 2 was easier than Task 1. Just compare Experimental and Control on Task 2.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,What about the following set of numbers.?,S - R S - R S - R S - R S
18、- R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Studying Transfer,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Experimental Group,Control Group,Learn Original Task,Rest,Learn TransferTask,Learn TransferTask,Phase 1 Phase 2,8,14,19,The Experimental Group showed _ transfer.,positive,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S -
19、R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,Thorndikes theory of transfer talked about the number of elements two tasks have in common but did not distinguish between stimulus elements and response elements. Transfer may depend on which elements are involved.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,To investigat
20、e the role of stimulus and response elements, researchers have presented paired-associate lists as the original and transfer tasks. The tasks can then be made similar in terms of their stimuli, their responses, or both.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,
21、The following notation system is used to refer to the paired-associate lists in Phases 1 and 2. There are two pairs of letters, like A-B, C-D. The first letter of a pair represents stimulus items in the list and the second letter represents response items. The above notation means that both stimuli
22、and responses in the two lists are different.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Suppose the two lists used the same stimulus items but different response items. The first list would be represented as A-B. The second would be _ C.,A,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Asso
23、ciate Learning,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Experimental Group,Control Group,Learn A-B bok - xiz,Rest,Learn C-D foh - taw,Learn C-D foh - taw,Phase 1 Phase 2,A-B, C-D,Typical Result: Positive Transfer,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,Even though
24、 the two lists are completely different, the Experimental Group often outperforms the Control Group on the transfer task. Findings like this have led to a distinction between specific transfer and general transfer.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,A-B, C-D,Specific transfer depends on similarity
25、 between stimulus or response elements of the information presented. General transfer does not; it occurs for other reasons.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,It is likely that the Experimental Group benefits from experience in Phase 1 because they learn
26、 how to memorize paired-associate lists under the conditions of the experiment. Such general positive transfer has been called learning-how-to-learn: learning something useful about a type of task or problem that can be applied to any instance of it.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,A-B, C-D,Tho
27、rndikes theory can handle this because it says that task elements can be either part of a procedure or part of the substance of whats learned. The effect is more limited than Locke would expect.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,Transfer of Learning,Thor
28、ndike,Locke,Experimental Group,Control Group,Learn A-B bok - xiz,Rest,Learn A-C bok - taw,Learn A-C bok - taw,Phase 1 Phase 2,A-B, A-C,Typical Result: Negative Transfer,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,This negative transfer goes against Thorndikes theo
29、ry. Half the elements (the stimuli) are identical in the two lists so there should be some positive transfer. Negative transfer occurs because you have to extinguish (stop saying) List 1 responses before you can learn the List 2 responses.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,A-B, A-C,Its like learn
30、ing to drive on the left side of the road after many years of driving on the right side. There will be a strong tendency to keep driving on the right.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Experimental Group,Control Group
31、,Learn A-B bok - xiz,Rest,Learn A-B bik - xiz,Learn A-B bik - xiz,Phase 1 Phase 2,A-B, A-B,Typical Result: Positive Transfer,(similar stimuli, same responses),S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,This positive transfer is readily explained in terms of a pri
32、nciple of operant conditioning that says when you learn a response to a stimulus, you will tend to make that same response to similar stimuli. This is the principle of .,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,A-B, A-B,It helps to explain why learning one “romance” language, like French, can help you l
33、earn another, like Italian or Spanish.,Stimulus Generalization,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Paired-Associate Learning,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,A - B,French: bon good,A - B,Italian: buono good,Spanish: bueno good,Generally, the findings on transfer support Thorndi
34、ke more than Locke. Transfer depends on details of the information being learned or the type of task involved.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Learning Sets,A “learning set” is a tendency to approach a problem in a certain way as a result of previous experience with similar pro
35、blems. The term was introduced by Harry Harlow to characterize the remarkable improvements he observed in monkeys performance on discrimination problems as a result of their being given hundreds of problems of the same type.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,Review of Terms,Two other terms were d
36、iscussed that basically mean the same thing as learning set. They are.?,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Learning Set = ?,Learning-How-to-Learn =,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,General Positive Transfer,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Learning Sets,In
37、 Harlows experiments, monkeys were presented with two objects that differed in multiple ways, like shape, color, and size; for example, a red cylinder and a blue pyramid:,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,If the monkey pushed aside one of the objects (here, the red cylinder), he found food. If he
38、 chose the pyramid, he got no food. Left-right positions were reversed randomly from trial to trial.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R,Learning Sets,After the monkey consistently made correct choices, Harlow switched to a new set of objects, like a green cube and a silver sphere:
39、,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,The monkey got trial after trial until he always made correct choices. Then Harlow switched to a new pair of objects and the animal had learn a new solution. Altogether, there were 344 problems, each with a different set of objects.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R
40、 S - R S - R S - R S - R,Learning Sets,The monkeys became “experts” at solving this type of problem. The first few problems took a lot of trials to solveblind trial-and-error like Thorndikes cats in the problem box.,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,After 300 problems (not trials on the same prob
41、lem), they solved each problem within 2 trials, the absolute minimum, using a “win-stay, lose-shift” strategy.,If the first object they chose was correct, the chose it on every trial. If it was wrong, they shifted to the other object on Trial 2, and then stuck with it.,S - R S - R S - R S - R S - R
42、S - R S - R S - R S - R,Learning Sets,Transfer of Learning,Thorndike,Locke,1 2 6Trials,1007550,Percent Correct Responses,Problems 1 - 8,Problems 33 - 132,Problems 289 - 344,These general improvements in problem-solving support Locke, but theyre specific to the type of problem the animals practiced, which supports Thorndike.,
